John 4:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who try to swim across the sea without a ship may swim a little, moving hands and feet. Yet when they go farther, they are soon swallowed by the waves. So too those guided only by their own reason suffer shipwreck before learning anything.

Paul also says that some suffered shipwreck concerning the faith (1 Tim 1:19). Therefore, lest we suffer the same, let us hold fast to this sacred anchor, by which Christ now guides the woman.

When she said, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship," Christ answered her: "Believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father."

Here He reveals to her a great doctrine, which He had not told either Nicodemus or Nathanael. She was trying to prove the superiority of her rites over those of the Jews, and she confirmed this by the example of her fathers.

Christ did not answer this inquiry. It would have been unnecessary then to speak of it and explain why her fathers worshiped on that mountain, while the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Therefore He passed over this in silence.

What then does the Lord do? Again He answers with the wisdom proper to Him. Since she saw in Him a Jew, while she herself was a Samaritan, the Lord did not wish to give a direct answer to her question.

He did not wish either to grieve her or to mislead her. For He sought one thing only: to direct this woman onto the path of salvation. Nothing else entered into His purpose.

Therefore He avoids everything that could mislead her or put her to shame. If He had told her that Jerusalem was the place where one ought to worship, as Moses commanded the sons of Israel, He would certainly have stirred great displeasure in her.

This was especially so because, as we have already said, she had on her side the ancient tradition concerning Mount Shechem. According to this tradition, on that mountain Abraham, by God's command, was to offer Isaac in sacrifice.

On the other hand, if He had condescended to her and said that this mountain was indeed the place, and that the Samaritans did well in worshiping there, such words would certainly not have been true.

Therefore, leaving earthly disputes to the earth, He raises His interlocutor to the thought of spiritual worship. He says: "Believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father."

Do you see the better instruction? Do you see the wisdom of the skillful Teacher? "Jesus says to her: Believe Me." See how He awakens the woman's faith. See how He gradually raises her soul to heaven.

He does not put her to shame for the outward condition of a harlot, but serves the salvation of her soul. Why? Because He "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:32).

Because of the lost sheep, without departing from the Father's bosom, He came down to us, bowing the heavens. He became perfect man, while remaining what He was.

One of those from here came to a hermit keeping stillness in the desert and said to him, "I marvel, Father, how you endure being separated from the holy Church, far from Communion and the holy assemblies."

The man of God answered, "All assemblies, liturgies, feasts, Communions, and sacrifices are performed, O man, so that a person may be cleansed of his sins and God may dwell in him.

This accords with Christ's words: "We, I and the Father, will come and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23), and "I will dwell in them and walk among them" (2 Cor 6:16).

Therefore, once a man becomes a living, God-fashioned temple of God, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell and walk in him, his God-bearing soul withdraws from every desire to be present in created churches.

It withdraws from the desire to take part in visible sacrifices, material assemblies, and human feasts. It no longer wishes to worship God "either on this mountain or in Jerusalem" (Jn 4:21).

Such a man has the Father within himself. Within, he has the Son, the High Priest. Within, he has the Spirit, the true Fire. Within, he has the true sacrifice, "a broken spirit" (Ps 50:19).

Within, he has the altar, a pure conscience. Within, he has the propitiatory sacrifice, spiritual tears. Within, he has the Jerusalem above, a rejoicing soul.

Finally, as one who is spiritual, he offers sacrifices with spiritual eyes. For "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:24).

As the apostle Paul teaches, "the things that are seen are temporary," whether sacrifices or offerings, while "the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor 4:18).

This unseen reality is what takes place in the heart "in spirit and truth." Before the coming of Christ, eye had not seen it, ear had not heard it, and it had not entered man's heart.

Yet God prepared and revealed it to us through His Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor 2:9).

The man counted worthy to acquire these good things is deified by God's indwelling in him. He worships God within himself, or even worships himself within himself and honors himself.

He sees his flesh become the tabernacle of God (Rev 21:3), and sees it as the dwelling, altar, and sanctuary of God.

Such an ascetic honors neither heaven, nor the angels, nor the visible sacrifice, nor anything else in the world above the temple of his own body. In it he sees the fullness of the Trinity dwelling within him."

You have now heard of the mysteries granted to us by Christ through His coming to us.

In this case the term "communions," κοινωνίαι, should be understood as Eucharistic Communions.

We follow the citation given by Anastasius. Compare a reflection of Macarius, who says of the Lord: "For this reason He endured great sufferings, gave His Body over to death, and redeemed us from the slavery of darkness.

He did this so that, entering each soul, He might make an abode for Himself in it (Jn 14:23), and rest in it after the great labors He endured for its sake.

Such was the desire of His good will: while we are still in this age, He would dwell and abide in us, according to His promise (2 Cor 6:16)."

In Anastasius, however, the triadological aspect of this indwelling is emphasized, while in Macarius the Christological aspect is emphasized.

Compare Gregory Palamas: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:24). That is, they must think of the Bodiless One in a bodiless manner.

Only then will those who worship truly behold Him in His spirit and truth. Since God is spirit, He is bodiless. What is bodiless is not in any place and is not bounded by spatial limits.

Therefore whoever says that God must be worshiped in some definite place among all the places of heaven and earth speaks against the truth and worships falsely.

Since God is bodiless, He is nowhere. Yet since He is God, He is everywhere.

If there is a mountain, place, or creature where God is not, then He would be limited in some respect. Therefore God is everywhere, for He is boundless.

In what manner is He everywhere? Is it because He is contained not by part of the world, but by the whole world? By no means, for this would again mean that He is a body.

Therefore, containing and encompassing all things, God is everywhere in Himself and above all. The true worshipers worship Him in His spirit and truth."

According to Theophan's explanation, the words "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not entered the heart" express the extraordinary greatness of the good things given us in Christ Jesus.

They express a greatness surpassing every expectation, incomprehensible and immeasurable. They also express the very manner of their bestowal, that is, the divine economy of salvation.

God is incarnate, takes "the form of a servant," and is found "as a man." He humbles "Himself unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).

He does this in order to justify those who had transgressed against Him, adopt them as sons, spiritualize them, deify them, and show them not only radiant but light-bearing.

Still more, He does this to recapitulate all things in Himself, whether earthly or heavenly.

This was incomprehensible before it was accomplished and manifested in deed. Even after its manifestation and accomplishment, it remains immeasurable and uncontainable for all except those counted worthy of these good things and brought into communion with them.

Yet even they taste and see, but cannot comprehend it.

At first glance, the hermit's answer quoted in this question by Anastasius is quite troubling, since it appears to have an anti-ecclesial and anti-liturgical character.

In general, as scholars note, the life of the ancient monks was unthinkable outside a liturgical context and outside the Eucharist.

Yet there were exceptions to this general rule, chiefly among hermits and recluses. One such exception was Paul of Thebes, in whose Life, written by Jerome, every liturgical and Eucharistic context is absent.

In a later Egyptian synaxarion preserved in Arabic, it is told that an angel gave Communion to Paul.

This account probably reaches back into the depth of oral Tradition. It is also reflected in the Life of Onuphrius the Great.

There Paphnutius asks how he receives Communion on Saturday and Sunday. The elder answers, "An angel of the Lord comes to me, bringing with him the most pure Mysteries of Christ, and gives me Communion.

The angel does not come with divine Communion to me alone. He also comes to other desert ascetics who live for God's sake in the desert and do not see a human face.

When he gives them Communion, he fills their hearts with ineffable gladness."

One may also cite the account of the virgin Taora. When the other sisters gathered in church on the Lord's feasts for Communion, she sat constantly in her cell at her work, clothed in rags.

In all these cases we are dealing with examples of the highest holiness accessible to man.

Anastasius also speaks of this same highest holiness. He thus emphasizes that the chief aim of every Christian is deification.

Divine worship, and especially the Eucharist, is the principal means of attaining this aim. Yet it is not itself that aim.

The whole Christian life, in all its various aspects, prayers, fasts, and labors of good works, should ideally be an unceasing Liturgy. Its central point is the Eucharist.

What meaning, then, do the Lord's words contain? By this the Savior rejects the opinion of the Samaritans and Jews. He announces the end of the legal and shadowy sacrifices, and defines true worship of God.

"Neither on this mountain," He says, "nor in Jerusalem will you worship," imagining that only these places are fitting for the worship of God.

After the Lord spoke with the woman about the place of worship, He then begins to speak also about the Person to Whom one must worship, continuing:

"Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem": the Lord announces that a new order of things will come. Under it, the opposition between Jews and Samaritans concerning the place of worship or veneration of God will be abolished.

Neither Samaritans will need to go to Jerusalem, nor Jews to travel to Gerizim, in order to perform public worship of God.

People will worship God as Father. This filial character of the new worship of God will free it from all limitations of time and place.

In it all nationalities and all places will be united for all times. In this regard the Lord gives preference neither to Jerusalem nor to Gerizim.

In the future, places for worshiping the heavenly Father will be everywhere, in all countries and among all peoples.

Neither your Gerizim nor our Jerusalem will be exclusive places of divine worship. Their ancient and present significance for you and for us is passing away. A new order will exist in this respect.

By this the woman was shown that the question she had raised, which then possessed such great importance, would lose all its importance in the near future.

"You worship what you do not know." Some have seen in these words a reproof of the Samaritans for idolatry. Yet such a reproof was no longer needed in the time of Christ Jesus.

The Samaritans had abandoned idols long before. Even Rabbi Maimonides, who was not favorably disposed toward the Samaritans, defends them against charges of paganism (Tract. Berachot, ch. 8).

The Savior shows the Samaritans that, by arbitrarily choosing the place of worship and disregarding the history of divine revelation after Moses and the instruction of the prophets, they cannot account for what they worship.

They call God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But after that God seems to have ceased being the living God, which cannot be.

"We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." "He calls His own coming salvation," says Chrysostom.

It should be said that salvation is put in place of Savior, as in other cases: Luke 1:71; Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6. The Samaritan woman also understood it so in John 4:25.

The Savior's thought had long ago been expressed in Ps 109:2; Ps 49:2; Isa 2:3.

After Moses, the prophets from time to time showed more clearly the image of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. They also depicted the properties of the Godhead and the worship fitting to Him.

Therefore the Jews, if they wished, could have the clearest knowledge both of God and of the Savior of the world. Thus by His own voice the Savior affirms the importance of Old Testament revelation in its full composition.